In this blog, I’ll look at application performance in the context of mediation drawing on experience from over 350 DigitalRoute deployments. Rather than try to weigh up an extremely broad set of possible features and functions and modes of execution, many of which may be reasonably similar to each other among competing products on the market, I will try to suggest some questions the telco might ask itself when reviewing its purchasing alternatives or, indeed, ask the vendor of the products themselves what they actually make available (in this example, off-the-shelf). Here, thus, is a list to ponder:

If you try to talk about mediation to pretty much anyone except those people who work in billing mediation you’re likely to be met with a blank stare and a rapid excuse about “having to run because I’m on my way to a meeting.” For those of us in the mediation vendor community, this could be depressing. I mean, talk to an industry analyst if you want to know how bad our lot is: they’ll tell you that next to mediation, researching billing applications is downright glamorous. Fortunately for us, though, they’re wrong. And if you take that view of the importance of mediation, you’re wrong too. Let me explain.

I’m writing this blog, in my new role, mainly to introduce myself. I’ve just taken over the Product Management of Billing Mediation here at DigitalRoute so, before getting into the nitty gritty of various specific topics in future articles, I thought it might be a good idea to start with a helicopter view; letting you know who I am and what, in a broad sense, I think.

A few truths: The volume of telco data is increasing. The number of sources from which it is collected is increasing. The use to which it is put is increasing. As a result of all of the above (and more), the demands placed on data-related IT applications are increasing. And so, more often than not, are the costs.

In the previous two blogs in this series, we’ve raised a number of issues that we’d advise you to address when deploying Mediation as a VNF in an NFV infrastructure. We’ll conclude our guidance in this article, with the second part of our look at the specifics of an actual deployment. Once again, remember that this isn’t intended to be a comprehensive checklist for NFV success; our aim in this blog series is to alert you to important considerations in advance of the task at hand.

In our last blog, we raised some general points readers might want to think about when deploying Mediation as a VNF in an NFV infrastructure. We’ll continue that theme here, but move on to issues directly related to the specifics of an actual deployment. Remember, this isn’t a comprehensive checklist for NFV success: our aim in this blog series is to alert you to important considerations in advance of the task at hand.

One of the things software vendors are very good at (honestly) is telling you how great their products are! Even those vendors who aren’t good at telling you like doing it anyway. And not actually having very good applications to sell has never been known to stop a vendor from boasting about its offerings. This observation brought to mind a conversation I had with one of our customers, the renowned cricketer (he was allegedly once seen on the pitch at Lords) and Vodacom mediation director, Keith Kriel last year.

In this blog, I’ll look at application performance in the context of mediation drawing on experience from over 350 DigitalRoute deployments. Rather than try to weigh up an extremely broad set of possible features and functions and modes of execution, many of which may be reasonably similar to each other among competing products on the market, I will try to suggest some questions the telco might ask itself when reviewing its purchasing alternatives or, indeed, ask the vendor of the products themselves what they actually make available (in this example, off-the-shelf). Here, thus, is a list to ponder:

I’m writing this blog, in my new role, mainly to introduce myself. I’ve just taken over the Product Management of Billing Mediation here at DigitalRoute so, before getting into the nitty gritty of various specific topics in future articles, I thought it might be a good idea to start with a helicopter view; letting you know who I am and what, in a broad sense, I think.